Hikers, campers, beach-goers and boaters may soon experience drastic improvements to neglected trails, roads and other public facilities under a five-year comprehensive plan launched yesterday by Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration. The Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources is seeking
Hikers, campers, beach-goers and boaters may soon experience drastic improvements to neglected trails, roads and other public facilities under a five-year comprehensive plan launched yesterday by Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration.
The Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources is seeking $240 million in loans to upgrade state parks and harbors, combat erosion and improve safety, boost enforcement and establish more interpretative programs.
DLNR Chair Laura Thielen said in an interview yesterday that the “Recreational Renaissance” initiative would be funded by $40 million in general obligation bonds in the first two years and $200 million in general obligation reimbursable bonds over the full five years.
“We don’t have the money. We’re asking permission to borrow it,” she said. “We will use our sweat equity and ingenuity in the DLNR, combined with modest user fees, and work to repay the debt. All we have to do is be able to make the annual payments. We’re not taking anything away from anybody else.”
To help “kick start” the plan, the department is asking the state Legislature to take out a $40 million loan, Thielen said.
The department would then use that money to implement its plans to produce the extra revenue, roughly $20 million, needed to pay back the debt service on that loan and an additional $200 million loan it would take out. The current low interests rates should help, Thielen said.
The extra revenue would be generated in three ways:
∫ The department is proposing to dedicate lease rents from existing leases and to also create new leases on state-owned commercial and industrial lands that will help repay the loan.
∫ The state has some limited leases and concessions on land around harbors, and in a few cases in parks, and those rents would help repay the loan and go toward running the operations of those areas.
∫ The department is proposing entrance fees for tourists at eight state parks, including Waimea Canyon, Koke‘e and Ha‘ena. Entrance will remain free for residents. The fee being proposed is the fee currently being paid at Diamond Head on O‘ahu — $1 for walk-ins, $5 for vehicles, slightly more for commercial users.
“Having an entry fee may allow you to have better management of the area,” Thielen said.
In Ha‘ena, for instance, residents have complained for years about people parking their vehicles all over the place, she said.
The department’s approach is multi-fold. Thielen said it’s part “let’s fix these places up” and part “let’s do business differently.”
“Even though we’re in this horrible economic situation, we must make a choice,” she said. “You can say stewardship of the land takes a back seat … Or people in the department can come up with a way to create a new pie and do a better job of managing the resources.”
The state Legislature and governor have been “quite good” about funding DLNR capital improvement projects, Thielen said, but she likened the effort to “investing in botox for a 90-year-old field hand. It’s not making a lot of difference.”
The chair said the department has spent a lot of time preserving places such as historical or cultural sites but has not taken the time to study the cost of managing those places over time.
“This was a real renaissance within the DLNR,” Thielen said, noting communication improvements within divisions.
The business community likes the idea of upgrading “green infrastructure,” Thielen said.
“This is what people are coming to see and these are the same places our residents go,” she said. “We all deserve better facilities.”
Before any user fees are implemented on Kaua‘i, the chair said the state plans to make improvements to restroom facilities and other areas that are too run-down to be able to justify an entrance fee.
A Hawai‘i Tourism Authority survey found that in 2007 statewide there were 10 million visits to state parks — 6 million of them were tourists, Thielen said.
The five-year plan is slated to start July 1. The department plans to spend the first two years doing projects that have already been designed or budgeted.
For instance, $3.4 million is budgeted for a wide-range of improvements to Port Allen Small Boat Harbor in the first year of the plan and an additional $2.5 million for it in the second year, according to state documents that were embargoed for release today.
For forestry on Kaua‘i, the first year would see $450,000 the design of bridge restoration at Keahua Stream, N. Fork Wailua River and Kawai Koi Stream, plus $50,000 to design the replacement of two miles of the Alakai Boardwalk. The second year would see the construction of these two projects, totaling $4.5 million and $500,000, respectively.
State parks on Kaua‘i in the first year would see significant funding in the first two years. At Koke‘e state park, $8 million is budgeted for the construction of Koke‘e Road improvements, plus $610,000 for design work for improvements to rental cabins, water systems, parking, interpretive displays and a new Ni‘ihau lookout at Hinahina. Construction on those projects the following year is expected to total $6.9 million.
On the Eastside, $400,000 is budgeted to renovate the comfort station at Old Smith’s Landing at Wailua River State Park.
On the North Shore, the second year of the plan calls for $480,000 of design work for Na Pali Coast State Park trail restoration and stability improvements, protection improvements of archaeological sites at Nualolo Kai and water system improvements at Miloli‘i.
While some proposals have been made, more input will be sought for what to spend the money on during the last three years of the plan.
“It could be beyond anything we’ve seen before,” Thielen said.
In years three through five, the plan calls for more than $1 million dollars to be spent at Koke‘e State Park to develop parking areas for Kukui Trail, Awa‘awapuhi Trail and Nualolo Trail along with interpretive displays.
State documents describe the “renaissance” as “a re-birth in the way we care for our land and ocean recreational spaces, our natural and cultural resources, and the residents and visitors at Hawai‘i’s state parks, small boat harbors, boat ramps, hiking trails, natural area reserves, forest reserves and beaches.”
The DLNR is charged with meeting these needs through 54 state parks, 20 small boat harbors, 25 boat ramps or landings, 275 miles of hiking trails, 19 natural area reserves, 55 forest reserves and hundreds of miles of state beaches, according to DLNR documents.
There are nine state parks, including lookouts, on Kaua‘i, Thielen said. If the plan moves forward as scheduled, Kaua‘i would get the second highest (O‘ahu would receive the most) amount of funding in the state during the first two years with $21.89 million worth of improvements to its state parks, forests and harbors.
Visit hawaii.gov/dlnr/media for more details of the plan.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
